Mark's Great Guitar Tone

[JF]

That Kemper touring decision is demented at least. The thing sounds terrible. I asked Guy about that and he said MK felt confortable with that crappy sound and also he said that the tone sounded pretty good to everybody in their stage in-ears. Go figure. Also, I have to say that one of MK's last great tones is that blue Pensa dynamite sound in Tracker, particularly on Laughs and Jokes and also on Oklahoma Ponies.
And I also would like to add, in the negative side, that I deeply dislike some of his "new" tones from 2000 and beyond, and I'm talking about that Gibson 335, very uneven, kind of muddy tone: Baloney Again, Behind with the Rent, Blood and Water, Go Love, and some more. Great songs all of them nonetheless. Just don't like the tone, but I dont know if I'm the only one who dislikes it.

I think Go love is the 58 LP, not the 335
 are you sure about Oklahoma Ponies ? I thought it was the Les Paul. Kind of cleaining my gun tone

[Beryl]

Maybe Go Love is the Les Paul but the guitar/amp/effect configuration is in the Baloney/Behind with the Rent/Madame Geneva/blood and water line of sound, which I don't like. And Oklahoma is Blue Pensa for sure. Les Paul has its unbeatable tone but it's not as versatile,  IMHO. It's in the Kingdom Come (Pensa again) tradition of messing with a Satriani approach, as if he was in a guitar store enjoying himself

[dustyvalentino]

I thought the 2019 live tone was fine, at least at the actual gigs I attended. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying it as well.

[quizzaciously]

I thought the 2019 live tone was fine, at least at the actual gigs I attended. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying it as well.

It's a never-ending war between purists and innovators. I too loved the live 2019 sound, HOWEVER, I can understand where the frustration comes from.

If you listen very, very closely, or side by side with "proper" recordings, you can hear the sound is sort of "too perfect", a bit sterile, and overall very polished and digital. But it gets the job done and is cheaper. Generally speaking, the tone is as subjective as it gets.

As you can see in the examples people provide, most of the time it's a great song and/or great playing that makes the tone great, not vice versa.

[ds1984]

I thought the 2019 live tone was fine, at least at the actual gigs I attended. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying it as well.

The use of the Kemper on  the 2019 was not an issue for me either.
I liked the use of the LP on OUATITW.

[dustyvalentino]

I thought the 2019 live tone was fine, at least at the actual gigs I attended. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying it as well.

It's a never-ending war between purists and innovators. I too loved the live 2019 sound, HOWEVER, I can understand where the frustration comes from.

If you listen very, very closely, or side by side with "proper" recordings, you can hear the sound is sort of "too perfect", a bit sterile, and overall very polished and digital. But it gets the job done and is cheaper. Generally speaking, the tone is as subjective as it gets.

As you can see in the examples people provide, most of the time it's a great song and/or great playing that makes the tone great, not vice versa.

I’m not talking about recordings, I’m talking about live, in the room. We’ve been lucky to have the tour recordings but they are basically official bootlegs, not properly mixed and they never sound amazing.

I was aware he was using Kemper in 2019 so I was listening carefully. At the gigs it sounded the same as previous tours.

[Beryl]

There are many soundboard clips from 2019 in YouTube (many at Mark Knopfler Official Channel) and, in my ears, the tone is not good at all. Specially on the overdriven guitars. Once Upon A Time sounds bad, Money For Nothing even worse. It gets a little better on clean strat tones and maybe when the Les Paul is not so distorted (Your Latest Trick, for instance). But it is not worthy of MK. And I dont understand the economic side of the Kempers in MK case (I could play with Kempers because I am a nobody with no money and a small car to carry my amp). But not for Mark. After all, he is MK, a wonderful guitar player who also happens to be a tone perfectionist and who also is a millionaire who plays a 300.000 USD Les Paul.

[dustyvalentino]

The soundboard clips are pointless, you had to be there.

[Beryl]

There has been a long talk about live tones between 79-82 and none of us where there, at those venues. And I guess that all this talk about the studio recording's tone is also pointless, since you should have been in the studio with Mark. 

[dustyvalentino]

There has been a long talk about live tones between 79-82 and none of us where there, at those venues. And I guess that all this talk about the studio recording's tone is also pointless, since you should have been in the studio with Mark. 

Touché!

I would counter argue however that something like Alchemy was a proper recording unlike the mp3s they sold a day after the show in the last 15 years. And he was playing clean then, whereas the arguments around Kemper seem to stem from distorted tones.

[quizzaciously]

The soundboard clips are pointless, you had to be there.

I agree. By the way, raw stems from studio records without any "makeup" also sound like s*&%t despite all being recorded on state-of-the-art amps and guitars. I remember hearing a couple of raw tracks without any alterations whatsoever, and it sounds exactly like any modelling amp would sound prior to applying effects.

So you're right, it's a completely different story live. Should they tweak the sound just a tiny bit on soundboard recordings, it would sound like a dream.

[quizzaciously]

One of the most impressive pages on the internet for me is Fractal Audio's "Amplifier models list" and their other research on Fractal Audio Wiki: https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Amplifier_models_list

Once you realise these guys don't just fool around but know traditional amplifiers inside and out, more than anybody else, and try to emulate all these amplifiers for your listening and playing pleasure, making the experience more affordable and fun, one might think companies like Kemper and Fractal Audio are indeed heroes, not villains.

The sound doesn't just appear out of thin air, everything happens for a reason. It's just simple electrical circuits, speakers and tubes, you can emulate this.

[dustyvalentino]

https://youtu.be/2R2Qtf3UeL0?si=Evgnis3x8g7Y6Gye

https://youtu.be/-n-0SOA-yuA?si=dqD9s8pY5oP38_x2

It’s hard to look past the playing which is noticeably worse in 2019 but I actually think the tone is worse here in 2015 (these were just the first two clips that YouTube threw up for me when I searched).

[Rolo]

https://youtu.be/2R2Qtf3UeL0?si=Evgnis3x8g7Y6Gye

https://youtu.be/-n-0SOA-yuA?si=dqD9s8pY5oP38_x2

It’s hard to look past the playing which is noticeably worse in 2019 but I actually think the tone is worse here in 2015 (these were just the first two clips that YouTube threw up for me when I searched).

In my opinion, since 2010, Mark's tone are thinner and thinner. I don't know if was connected to some ear loss (high frequencies are more audible for musicians that suffer from hearing loss) but i really don't know.

Maybe is a matter of taste. Who knows?

Last tour was horrible in terms of guitar tones, except for some clean ones in STP and RJ.
WAM sound like a guitar inside a plastic tube. No dynamics at all.
I've seen people using Kempers, Fractals, Headrushs, Tonexes way better than MK's Kemper profiles.

[ds1984]

In my memories WAM sounded good at the venues.